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A Passing Wanderer
A_Passing_Wanderer (often shortened to APW) is the second translator of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, translating chapters 363 onwards from Korean to English. They were asked to take over from where RainbowTurtle left off, presumably by Webnovel.Novel Updates Forum, post by user A_Passing_Wanderer: : Hi, everyone. Some news: I've been asked to take over the Omni Reader from rainbowturtle on Webnovel. I've only begun TLing it recently, so I'm not that far into it, however. I'll try to get it out ASAP, but well, I gotta catch up 300 or so chapters I neglected to read so it might take a bit of time. : If you know the history between this novel and I, then well, you could say that it has come back home (figuratively speaking, obvs) albeit one whole year later. They had originally translated the first 16 chapters of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint before learning that RT was taking over the translation. These chapters can be found here. Changes and reactions When APW took over the translation from RT, they made a number of changes to how the novel was translated. The most obvious of these changes was the romanization of the names; the format of all names was changed, along with the spelling for the vast majority. Furthermore, much of the terminology was changed; for instance, the term "Story" was changed to "Fable".Chapter 363 (details given in TL notes throughout chapter) Many members of the audience—including RainbowTurtle herselfNovel Updates Forum, post by user rainbowturtle—agreed that corrections were necessary to fix mistranslated terms and welcomed these changes with open arms. However, portions of the audience argued that the changes were too many and too drastic in nature, changing the look and feel of the novel overnight. There was outspoken criticism towards APW's edits from both casual readersComments on Chapter 363, user Namael_005: : What the hell. While I understand that some terms needed to be changed, the Korean fandom being rather loud when talking about Yoo Jonghyuk's name, but what the fresh hell. Transcenders? Hui-won? Some sentences are literally taken from google translate and I'm. So angry. Kim Dokja's character literally changed with that translation. He went from smug, confident man who's goal is to see ■■■ to... to a distant, polite and proper business man? Does he feel like someone who gambled against GODS to you? Where's his character, the one he developped in +300 chapters? How could you kill a character in one chapter like this. I'm so freaking upset about this. Comments on Chapter 363, user Kasaix: : Yeah and that's the thing. For example let's take a translation that was made in my country. "Pamuk prenses" this is the translation of snow white in my country which literally translates into Cotton Princess. That was the name that has been translated at the time and if you try to translate that as "Karbeyazi" it sounds weird and no one would get that it is Snow white even if you explain time and time again. So if I translate Snow white today in a more modern tone should I change the name too? The answer is no because it is something that has been established already. That's what I meant. Also I think you have never really studied translation in college before? If you did I guess our educations were different but one of the first things that has been taught to us before was that there is no perfect trabslation and every language is unique. So sometimes if you try to stick too close to the Source Language it will instead lost its meaning because of the cultural differences. In this case because you are trying to stay too loyal to the novel and change the names we have lost the ability to recognize the well established characters. Like 90 percent of the characters are named Yu or Yi or something else old names even though wrong were easier to read and understand while the "correct" names are harder to distinguish which downgrades the novel. That wad what I meant by downgrading the story. as well as fellow translatorsComments on Chapter 363, user Kasadex: : not gonna lie the new names kinda disgust me. As a translator myself I understand that since there is a better translation you feel the need to correct it and change stuff but think from the perspective of a reader (no pun intended) We have been reading this novel for like almost 400 chapters and we have already gotten used to the names. It is still alright to change the terminology like from story to fable but you never touch the names of the characters in an already translated novel. I haven't even read the quarter of the chapter but I already feel alienated and nauseous. This novel has already been on hiatus more than a month so it has lost a lot of readers and now we returned to read about characters we haven't even heard of before because of the name change. I am sorry but what you are doing is equal to killing the novel and I wouldn't have a good conscience if I didn't mention this. , and the ranking of the novel on Webnovel (the official host of the English translation) dropped from the 30s to the 60s and eventually the 90s. It is possible the overall readership in the English fandom also dropped after the translator change; while there are multiple individualsComments on Chapter 363, user Ndee: : I’m dropping this. The names make it unbearable, it’s no longer familiar but rather a strange offshoot. Have a nice day everyone! Comments on Chapter 363, user Bored_Monster: : I think I'm going to drop this. It was a really good novel but now it feels like the entire novels changed with this chapter. The names and translations changed and it caused the entire atmosphere of the novel to change. Comments on Chapter 363, user karyyy: : Can’t believe I’m actually saying this but I think I’ll start mtling. The changes done honestly ruined the story for me. I feel like it makes less sense now and it’s definitely harder to understand. Mtling would be a pain but at least I can get way more chapters. Now Turtle quitting really hit me �� who outright stated they were dropping the novel, there are currently no official stats to confirm this. List of changes Names Names were changed to reflect the revised romanization standards for Korean. For a short while, APW also began to use "Mr." and "Ms." instead of the honorific "-ssi", eventually reverting this change after complaints from readers. Modifiers Stories Terminology